Absolute Romance
by Haruhi-kun
Summary: Ritsu a merman saved a black haired boy and never to be seen again. A few years passed and they met again as boss and new secretary. Added that, they seemed to not remember each other, Takano received a death threat, resulting Ritsu to expose his secret as a water dweller. Ritsu will make sure that Takano will live with the cost of his life in stake.
1. Chapter 1

**A new story? Nah, I already write this story quite some time. I think it wills only a short one, I guess. I still want to focus more on my JR fic. Anyway, I thought maybe I just publish it to look if I need to continue this story or not so please review. Maybe I will try to update it. **

**SIH is not mine and sorry for any mistake. **

_**Part 1: Meeting you again…**_

_**Absolute Romance, Absolute Romance**_

_**Dream of it and it'll come true.**_

_**A huge romance way carrying you along**_

_**An actual romance, A real romance.**_

_**I will offer this way to love only you, I won't leave you alone anymore.**_

Slowly, a small merman swam across the subzero sea. His eyes diverted towards the mainland, searching. His small scaly blue tail matched the sea's sapphire color, making it invisible in the water. The droplets slowly trailed down from his chocolate hair, passing by his beautiful emerald eyes.

A sudden explosion shocked the boy. Immediately he could see an inferno coming from a villa just a few hundred meters from the shore. Ritsu dived into the sea and flew through the icy water as fast as lightning. He looked up from the shallow water and he saw an injured boy thrown into the nearby rocky sea. He immediately swam in the direction, carefully not to attract attention from the scary looking humans. When he reached there, he dived deeper into the sea, searching for the missing boy.

Then, he caught the sight of the black hair youth. Immediately, he grabbed the unconscious boy and swam to the shore away from the villa. He hid the boy behind a big chuck of stone that surely humans could not see from up above.

"What I'm gonna do with him?" The mer-boy looked to the human. He could see a wound on his shoulder, blood dripped slowly from the tear. Suddenly, golden orbs greeted the boy's sight. The human was shocked to see him but his face quickly morphed into an expression of pain as he gasped out loud. The human looked to the injury and sighed.

"Are you ok?" The mer-boy asked in concern. His beautiful tail splashed in the water, as if he were wiggling his tail.

"I'm ok… anyway, who are you? Don't tell me I died and went to the heaven." The black hair boy rubbed his injured shoulder gingerly.

"You haven't dying yet. What the hell is heaven when you're bleeding like that? Anyways, I'm a merman. Ritsu is my name…" Ritsu slowly eliminated the gap between them.

"I'm Takano. I presume that you saved me, right?" Takano looked to the beautiful jade eyes. He was mesmerized with the beauty of the orbs decorating the water dweller.

"Yeah. I was on my way home when I heard a big explosion coming from the mainland so I went to see what had happened. Then, I saw you being dragged by those two men. I figured that I should save you from the sea what with the water being very cold and the waves very strong today." Ritsu explained to the boy. They were having a very nice chitchatting before a second explosion went off.

"You better go now. It will be dangerous if you stay on the land for a long time." Takano ran his fingers through the boy's hair.

"But… you…"

"I'm ok. Go now. I need to return to the house." With this, their short meeting ended. For the next few days, Ritsu kept going to that place but he never saw the boy again…

"I'm home~" A young merman came whizzing through the deep-sea water. He smiled while holding a plastic bag filled with some food from the mainland. He was greeted by a swarm of little water sprites.

"Nii-chan!Okairi~" A young princess looking mermaid hugged her older brother. Akari smiled to her brother, looking at the red plastic bag.

"It's that for us, Ritsu-ni?" Akari, with shiny stars in her deep purple eyes, peeped at the content of the gift.

"Yeah, it's all for my cute little sisters and brothers." Ritsu smiled beautifully at his siblings. He averted his gaze to the side and saw his father who was certainly enjoying himself bathing in the limited sunlight coming from the surface of the sea.

"Father, didn't go to work again today?" Ritsu asked Akari who was enjoying the fish snack. Her little cute eyes looked up at her brother.

"No. He just slept at home when you went to the mainland." Akari opened the warp and stuffed the snack into her mouth. Little Jullya and Jun were happily sharing their snack together, while the older Lily was enjoying the desert like jelly that wrapped in a colorful wrapper.

"Seriously?…sigh. What he has ever done after mother died? Anyway, Akari did you mind your sisters and brothers?" Ritsu asked in a serious tone.

"Ritsu-ni, I do my jobs so you don't need to worry about them." Actually, Akari was already fifteen years old and the oldest daughters of Onodera family. Their mother passed away two years ago. She had been injured when accidentally a razor sharp propeller cut her tail. Actually, his mother was on her way to the main land with his father when a big ship suddenly moved near them. For a mermaid cutting your own tail is like killing yourself as the tail is the symbol of life for the water creature.

Back to the siblings, Ritsu was the oldest child in the family. He was twenty-five years old while the twins, Jullya and Jun were ten years old and Lily twelve. They lived somewhere in the deep part of the vast ocean about a kilometer from the nearest bay where the human's industry run, making the bay busy. Being the oldest, Ritsu had to work to support their family as his father had lost the motivation to work with humans as his wife was killed by them. Although Ritsu was sad that his mother died when they really needed her, he had to think positively.

Actually, their tribes was located somewhere deep in the Serene Blue sea. They were separated on their return home when Ritsu was only nine years old. Sixteen years had passed and they lived comfortably in their castle like house. It was the only thing that they had since their fortune was running low. It was because of this, Ritsu had to work for the sake of his siblings.

Enough with talk! In basic, Ritsu worked as a new secretary in a publishing company. He was accepted after his fifth interview and he was very delighted. He had made an accomplishment in his life.

Being a merman was very fun sometimes; you can go from one place to another faster than taking land transportation along while takes a break by playing in the water. However, it had being past down generation to generation that a mermaid or a merman can never tell a lie that will affect another being. If they do that then they will burst into sea foam if the person doesn't forgive them before the sunsets. This was because of the legend of the Mermaid Princess where she fell in love with a prince but she could not confess her love and in the end, she was turned into sea foam.

_**It is difficult to find and seems to be having a long life trip**_

_**If you become aware that it's an old tale again, Wake up!**_

It's a new day. The happy young merman swam in the deep blue ocean. He had an hour before he had to go to the office so he thought he could go to a nearby store to buy the bandage for his cut. While cutting the seaweed, Jullya and Jun accidently bumped into him making he cut his right hand. Thankfully, it had been shallow.

Ritsu swam happily accompanied by a school of colorful fish. He diverted his eyes to see the underwater scenery. He popped his head out of the water to be greeted by the nearest land mass. Swiftly, he leapt from the swallow water and transformed himself into a normal human. His scaly beautiful tail turned into a pairs of human legs. Although he had changed, his legs still had the scaly skin. This showed that they would always be a water dweller although they didn't want to at the moment.

Ritsu make his way to the nearby medical store. Happily, he opened the door and walked to the shelf and took the bandage that he needed. He spotted a bottle of vitamins and decided to buy it too. He also bought a bottle of herb and strawberry scented lotion. He needed the lotion as he was too exposed to the sunlight, making his skin dry. For his species, drying out meant death.

A loud bang shocked the boy. He glanced to the door to see a black hair man walked slowly forwards like he was some kind of zombie. The man supported himself on the wall and the shelf of the counter.

"Give me some aspirin!" Ritsu could see how desperate the man was. He looked like he could collapse any second. Ritsu glanced to his hand when he felt the touch of a small box. He looked to the box and immediately he took it and walked to the counter with his things.

"Here the aspirin, mister…" Ritsu put the small white box on the counter near the man. Ritsu could see the man gaze on him but he just ignored it.

"I want to buy this, sir. And pay for the aspirin too" Ritsu put down the things he had chosen earlier. The cashier took the things and scanned them.

"It's will be ten thousand yen, please." The cashier smiled softly to him. Ritsu took out some money and paid for them.

"Thank you." With that, Ritsu took the bag and was about to make his way to the door when the man from earlier grabbed his hand, making the boy looked back.

"I can pay for it… you know. You don't need to pay for it." The black hair guy smirked at the boy, like he was teasing him.

"Don't bother with it. Can you let go off my hand?" Ritsu directed his eyes at the hands. The man released his tight grip letting the boy go.

"And you should thank someone when they help you rather than saying that you can pay for it. I was not that stingy that I wouldn't give my money to help others." With that, Ritsu walked past the door and slowly disappeared from the man's sight. The Man huffed slowly as he had caught someone fascinating in his radar.

'That boy is very interesting…' Hurriedly, he walked past through the door after grabbed the aspirin. A shiny black limousine waited for him.

"Takano-sama, please don't barged into the store like that again. Just let me buy the medicine for you." A man in a black suit greeted Takano.

"Hatori, please. It's just a store. Nothing can happen." Takano went inside the car after the man opened the door.

"We don't know when the enemy could strike. Please refrain from doing it again."

"Yeah, whatever. Just drive. I want to go to the main office."

"Right away, sir."

Slowly the black limousine disappeared into traffic.

Ritsu stormed towards the office as fast as he could. He did not realize that it was already that late to work when he was resting at the park near the convenient store. It seems affected him badly. His skin was close to dry which could be fatal to him. He applied the lotion he bought earlier feeling the smooth moisture to seep into his skin. He checked his watch, another 5 minutes. He thinks he can reach it on time.

'I was so screw! Not just I'm late to work but the CEO of the company who I never met will come to the office today.' He marched to his office floor; feeling cold wind brushed again his smooth applied lotion skin. It calmed him down to be around cold temperature in this scorching weather although it's still could be said early in the morning. It's just half past eight.

"Ah, I made it!" Excitedly he greeted his colleague, Kisa Shouta who already worked here for a year. The said man turned his head and gave a small smile.

"Well, well, Rit-chan, why the rush? It's not the office will fled elsewhere." Kisa seem to checking his boss schedule while drinking hot coffee.

"Haha, not funny…" Ritsu managed to grab a coffee from the vending machine earlier and drank the content while arranged the document that was needed attention the most. It's being a month since he was employed but he never got to meet the man in person. Who else, not other that his boss. He sighed continued to scribble some of the pending document to be sent to Hatori. Hatori is one of the Executive Directors of the company who more like his boss for this long month as all the document that needed attention was delivered to him. This made his mind fled back to the man who was his boss. This past month many rumors could be heard. Some were saying that the CEO was a heartless soul who will work your ass off and never sympathize anyone. The former secretary before him never last for a few month, at last not a year. He sighed. So much for a job, now he got the worst job in the company which office boy looked more appealing. He hoped nothing bad happened as he really need this job now as his family was at the dire state. He needed money to support his family.

It's about an hour after that Hatori came to the office floor.

"Onodera-san, follow me." Ritsu collected himself a minute before he remembered that he will meet his new boss today. Along the way to his boss's room seem like eternity although it's just a few meter from the floor. It situated in a corner which hidden from view by the secretary floor. This company had a unique decoration and office design. There is a floor for secretary not the typical place where they will be by the boss's office but still in the same floor as their boss's office. It was to ensure that they still know each other and can rely on others.

Ritsu was nervous. His heart made a flip while his stomach clenched tight. He took breathed a few times to ease the nervousness. Not long, he reached his boss's room. Hatori knocked the door. There is a ruffled 'enter' command from the other side of the door. Hatori opened the door, Ritsu in the last second checked his appearance, smoothing the wrinkled layer of his shirt before entered the office. Hatori broke the silent.

"I come to introduce your new secretary. Would you introduce yourself?" He instructed Ritsu.

"Oh, yes. I'm Onodera Ritsu. Pleasure to meet you." Bowing a little to show respect. The man across him just held his inspection, directing his honey colored eyes to Ritsu. Finally, he spoke:

"I'm Takano Masamune. How long you already work here?" He asked.

"A month" Replied Ritsu immediately.

"Useless..." He said before looking to his paper back. Ritsu who heard that when angry with fury. 'How dare you say I'm useless… wait until I prove that.' His inner monologue tried to calm his burning heart.

"Here (Throwing a file toward Ritsu) check for any mistake and after that came back here again. Dismiss." In rage, Ritsu snatched the file and went away. Takano just smirked in amusement.

"Do you really need to anger him like that… you were so heartless…" Hatori commented.

"Well, you know me…"

"That's made me more worried." Hatori sighed.

**AN: Well, tell me if I need to continue. Anyway, the song in the story is the translating of Romance Way by Issei from anime Okane ga Nai.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Don't own SIH. Sorry for any mistake. This is unbeta.**

Chapter 2: Danger lurking everywhere

"AHHHH!" Yelling in frustration, Ritsu banged his head to the desk. It's being a hell week since he met his boss. Now, he understood the feeling of former secretary. He's really hard to work with. Once he told him to copy twenty piece of the document, just to be yelled that he only needed two copies. And he had the nerve to lecture him on the important of using less paper to avoid wastage. Ritsu burned in anger while trying to cool down the burning flame. He tried to think about his family. He was the only one who could take care of his family and had money to buy stuff that was needed to survive. This job is for the sake of his family and he would not let this arrogant man to hinder his responsibility. He would make sure that his siblings would get comfortable life if he needed to work his ass off. Not that he had problem to cook food as he just went hunt in the sea for food. But he also had to buy the necessary items like clothes and medicine. Ritsu lifted his head up, mustering strength to survive another day in the blasted office. He pulled out his planner and scanned the book. Time for work.

A calm, vibrate feeling filled his mind. He felt like he was floating in the sea. The feeling of freedom and sense of calmness soothed him and lulled him to a deeper sleep. Ritsu slowly moved his finger in circular motion, the water glowing in low light. He popped his eyes open when a nagging feeling tugged his heart, telling him to wake up. He directed his sight to the mop of black hair on his right side. 'I had seen it somewhere…' In his daze state and blurry vision, Ritsu raised his hand, trying to reach the mop of black hair. Slowly, he stretched his hand but in second the vision became vivid and the boy was replaced by Takano, shocking the brunette.

"RICCHAN!" Ritsu snapped open his close eyes.

"What-what happen?" Ritsu rubbed his blurry eyes and looked around just to be greeted by fuming Kisa.

"You asked what happen…sigh… You feel asleep. Need me to reminder you that you had a meeting with your boss in less than a minute. (Looking to his watch)

"Damn! You should wake me up earlier, Kisa. Now, that arrogant bastard will tease me and mocking me for coming late. I swear he was a sadist in his past life." Ritsu grabbed his planner and documents that were needed attention while finishing his neglected coffee on the table. He whisked his way to the boss office, feeling dread and sense of coming annoying thinking about his boss attitude. His liking of teasing and playing with him… made him shiver in anger. Anyway, he had worked to do now. He ran to Takano's office, catching his breath before knocking on the door. He entered the office after being told. He expected the same remark and teasing from the man but surprised when the man just silently waved him in and proceed with the daily plan. Ritsu just shrugged and continued doing his work.

"A letter came this morning. Because it looks a personal letter, I didn't open it." Ritsu gave the letter to the man and Takano took it, narrowing his eyes when he read it. Takano crushed the letter, startled the brunette. Not once he saw such anger in those golden eyes. It made him shiver in scare.

"Out" A low whisper, barely able to be heard by Ritsu. Ritsu took the queue, grabbed his planner and made his way out from the office. He breathed in, catching his breath that he did not remember he held it on. Shaking his head, Ritsu walked back to his desk, puzzled with Takano's weird behavior.

~Back to Takano~

'That BITCH!' Takano still crushed the letter, anger course through him. He so called Aunt managed to escape. He had ordered his men to hunt his aunt down. After this long Ten years, he now managed to prove that his aunt is the culprit for the assassination of his parents. He also could be dead if not the merman did not help him. Speaking of that merman, he still could hear his voice and remembered his beautiful long brown hair. The merman mesmerize emerald eyes froze him on the spot. The penetrating gaze felt like he was reading his life just by looking into the orbs. Takano closed his eyes, feeling content with the feeling of the merman that once saved him. He tried to find the merman but failed. Beside, because of the attempt of assassination, he was forced to be keep save in one of the guarded castle. He had to be tutor as his guardian who was his kind aunt, Moriko, did not want to risk his life as Mimie, his father's sister still alive somewhere. Aunty Mimie planned the murder to ensure that the throne was given to her son. There are a few attempts on murdering after that but luckily he managed to escape and survived. After years of gathering evident, he had present the evident in the court meeting, calling for the capturing of Takano Mimie and to be sentenced to death. However, she managed to avoid the capture and now she was being hunt down.

Takano sighed, trying to control his anger. He looked out from his office, feeling dread and uneasy feeling. He was lucky that no one knew that he is the crown prince of Urueazen (in exception of Hatori who was his head bodyguard). A small prosper country situated near the Asia but also near to the Europe. That's why the country was consisted of many different culture and people. The royal family somehow came from Asian descendent. Takano being the son of the past king was appointed as the crown prince until he married which he will ascend the throne and become the king.

He hated the attention given in his country with many young women and men (as the country was opened for the same-sex marriage) tried to win his heart and hopefully become the queen or the consort of the young prince. Takano hated them as he could clearly see the greed in their eyes of becoming a part of the royal family. Urueazen although is a small country, with the gold and silver that can be found made the country one of the rich country. There also abundant of jewel stone making the country one of the large production of jewelries in the world. Added with many shopping centre and unique and interesting place to visit, Urueazen was popular with the tourist, both local and foreign tourist.

Although, the country was a comfortable place to stay, Takano was bored and suffocated with the attention from the media and the people; he made his way to one of his corporation and worked on the problem rise. In this few weeks, he enjoyed teasing and ordering his new secretary. Usually, after a few days of being teased like that, they would surely resign. But not Onodera. Although he could see that the younger man was pissed off by him, he still kept working with him. For the first time, he really enjoyed coming to the work. Added with the little episode in the drug store, he could not help to wonder said brunette. There is a nagging feeling in his heart, telling him that he saw him before. He tried to think back but only blank mind come to him.

Throwing the letter in the dustbin, he continued his work.

Tired from the day work, Ritsu made his way to the small bay a few miles from the office. He was dead tired and he remembered that he had to go hunt for food for dinner today. It's already 5 in the evening. He really tired and did not want to go out hunting. Instead he went to the market and bought some frozen fish along with vegetable. Merman's diet was only consisted of fish and vegetable. They ate fish from the ocean and cooked with vegetable from the sea or from land. They used sunlight to cook while casting prevention charm on the pot to avoid water from getting inside. Magically, their house although was in the water, they still could put things in there as they were charm for water prove and gravity manipulation. Merman was a magical creature. They had magic in their vein to help them live and survive. They also used their skill to avoid getting caught by the human. Merman or Mermaid also had their tribe and the royal family. Onodera's family could be considered a part of royal family but not on the first line of the throne. Ritsu's grandfather married a young mermaid from the royal blood line, thus starting the line of the Onodera as the royal family.

Losing in his thought, Ritsu did not notice a sleek black car followed him slowly. Takano watched as his new subject of interest as the brunette made his way to the empty bay, losing in thought.

~Earlier from Takano POV~

After finishing his work, Takano get on the car and went for a ride. He avoided Hatori, wanting time alone by himself. His mind swayed back to the brunette who somehow unconsciously caught his attention. He really looked cute when he was flustered and angry. His earnestness and his accomplished looked somehow cracked a smile on his face. Never had he met someone so eager on working and doing his best. He secretly smiled when Onodera glared at him for being so difficult and selfish. His mind went to another boy he met years ago. Somehow, the merman he met when he was a child came to him. Unconsciously, he compared both the boy and the man. 'Both had brown hair, green eyes, pale skin and same name…'

Takano put a stop in his drive and shocked with the discovery. 'No way, they were the same person. Well, the boy had long brown hair and had a tail. Onodera on the other hand was a…human, right?'

He debated with himself and looked outside from his car. Speak of the devil; Onodera was walking alone by the roadside. His heart beat louder, his mind trying to made decision whether he should followed him or not.

'You should follow him. Maybe you can prove your theory.'

'Don't be ridicules! There's no way he was a merman.'

'Why you say that? There is no prove that shown he not a merman.'

'And there no prove also indicating he is a merman.'

'Just follow him. It's not that difficult.'

"No way! Don't lower yourself to become a stalker.'

'Follow him!'

'Don't'

'Follow him'

'Don't'

Banging his head to the steering wheel, Takano shut his inner debate. The object of his confusion just a few meters away yet he felt like having a war in the car. Weighing the pro's and con's, Takano started his car and follow the said brunette. Onodera was walking toward the beach, and to the bay. Takano get out from the car and slowly spied the brunette from behind a big crate. He watched as Ritsu put down his bag and muttered something under his breath before taking the bag and made his way to the sea. His heartbeat pounded faster as Ritsu whispered and his once short hair grew until it disappear in the sea. His eyes glittered in the sunset and he immediately dived into the sea, leaving a shock Takano with his prove theory. 'I found you at last…'Takano watched the sunset as the orange light illuminated his pale face. With a smirk, he walked back to his car, planning for tomorrow confrontation. There's no way he will let the young merman go away again.

Diving in the sea, made the young merman calmed. He swam happily with a school of colorful fish. He twisted and wiggled his tail to move faster. He reached home as his brothers and sisters greet him. Ritsu put his cloth in the big clamp which act as the closet and made his way to the kitchen to cook dinner. While cooking, his dream earlier came to him…

'Why I see Takano in my dream…?' He wondered. Somehow, there is an uneasy feeling tugging his heart. He did not know why but he felt there is danger lurking in this near future…

~End of Chapter 2~

**AN: Fewh… I managed to write this. Haha. And for a reminder, this fic will be fast pace as I still need to concentrate on my major JR fic which The Symphonia. This writer block really made me nut. **

**Anyway, Thank you to: Miruco, kuroshiro.19, Windying, Pugslover and a guest for reviewing. And also thank you to people who follow and favorite. Whaa so many people reading, made me soo happy. **

**There's maybe lemon in the future and yes, this is inspire by a manga named Junketsu Ningyo (?). I read the manga a while ago and started writing this fic as I really love mermaid fic. Hihi**

**And finally, please review!**


End file.
